Saturday, August 31, 2013

Based on yesterday's reported sighting of Philadelphia Vireo and Prothonotary Warbler, I was cautiously optimistic that there would be a few good birds lurking around Green-Wood Cemetery this morning.

For the entire morning a blanket of clouds made identifying birds in the treetops, well, challenging. Many birds appeared merely as dark silhouettes against the uniform white background. High humidity made me feel unmotivated and listless. Had there been even a fair number of birds flitting about in the trees and underbrush, perhaps I would have been more energetic, but there weren't and I wasn't.

After four hours of wandering the wooded hillsides, valleys and pond edges of the cemetery, I was burned out. A flock of Chimney Swifts and swallows darted around in the sky above the Sylvan Water and a small number of warblers foraged in the trees on the adjacent hillside. I never located the Philadelphia Vireo, Prothonotary Warbler or anything else unusual. Perhaps the voracious grasshoppers ate them all.